The Role of Accessibility Testing in Enterprise Success
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Accessibility isn't just a box to tick; it's a fundamental aspect of good design. By prioritizing accessibility, organizations not only fulfill their ethical obligations but also reap significant business benefits.
Consider Google Maps: Its ability to guide billions to their destinations hinges on inclusivity. By providing accessible features like step-by-step audio directions, alternative text for visual elements, and real-time transit information, Google Maps demonstrates how prioritizing accessibility can transform a product into an indispensable tool for everyone. This is the power of accessibility: to create products and services that truly serve all users.
Millions of people worldwide face barriers due to inaccessible technology. By designing products and services with accessibility in mind, businesses can tap into a vast, underserved market.
Moreover, accessibility is intrinsically linked to usability. Designs that accommodate users with disabilities often benefit everyone. For example, clear and concise language, sufficient contrast, and intuitive navigation enhance the user experience for all.
Beyond the ethical and user experience benefits, accessibility is increasingly becoming a legal requirement in many jurisdictions. Adhering to accessibility standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) not only helps businesses avoid legal repercussions but also demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and social responsibility.
In the following sections, we will delve deeper into the specific challenges faced by people with disabilities, the benefits of accessibility testing, and practical steps organizations can take to create more inclusive digital experiences.
Why do you need universal accessibility?
It makes a huge positive impact on business reputation.
In today’s digital world, accessibility isn’t just a legal requirement; it’s a strategic move to protect your enterprise’s reputation. Universal accessibility boosts employee inclusivity, productivity and morale, and also increases outreach and market share. It includes the design and provision of products, services, and spaces that can be used by people of all abilities.
Universal accessibility improves your business reputation as it fulfills your ethical obligations and shows how inclusive and socially responsible your business is. That’s especially important in a world where diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) are increasingly a central part of strategic business decisions. Accessibility helps build customer loyalty and establish a competitive advantage globally based on innovation and adaptability.
When it comes to tech, universal accessibility (as the name suggests) applies to internal tools as well as customer-facing applications.
Accessibility in the real world
Let’s look at a few ways that Google Maps is designed to cater to a wide range of users. It takes various accessibility needs into consideration. This makes Google Maps suitable for use by those with visual, auditory, and mobility impairments.
One major product feature is that Google Maps highlights accessibility information of different places.
That’s because they understand that all users, including those with disabilities, need to navigate the world more easily.
How do they know if Google Maps is meeting high accessibility standards? For one thing, they adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Importantly, Google also regularly works with accessibility advocates to improve their services. All new features are launched in beta mode to gather user feedback. With continuous user testing, they optimize usage. Necessary adjustments are made before full rollout.
Accessibility is integrated across teams, from product management to design and engineering. Google provides training and internal resources for developers to create accessible applications. This lets them use the latest accessible technology, from AI and machine learning to screen readers and voice tech.
Here are a few ways that Google Maps makes life easier for differently abled users:
With accessibility at its heart, Google Maps provides an inclusive and user-friendly experience. Here’s a few glimpses of the UI to illustrate.
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Accessibility and accessibility testing
How do you ensure that your apps are accessible? Prioritize application accessibility testing. This plays a key role in identifying barriers to usage by users with different kinds and levels of disabilities. Accessibility testing scrutinizes elements like screen readers, keyboard navigation, color contrast and more to ensure that they are in place and working well to deliver a more inclusive digital experience.
Meticulous testing ensures that your tech can be used by a much larger, more diverse and more inclusive user base. It reduces user frustration and improves user satisfaction. Accessibility testing is also associated with more comprehensive recording, which is essential to comply with various regulations and ethical standards.
The importance of early accessibility testing
Early accessibility testing is more cost-effective as it ensures the identification and remediation of accessibility issues early in the development process. This is more comprehensive, more rigorous, and also saves resources in the long run.
Early rigorous accessibility testing improves usability and code quality. Another benefit of accessibility testing is that it improves search engine optimization (SEO) as well. Search engines prioritize websites that have passed through a rigorous accessibility testing process. Such websites also tend to have clearer navigation, readable content, and optimized media, all of which contribute to positive SEO signals.
How does Accessibility testing work?
In essence, accessibility testing is a form of user experience testing, focused on the experience of those with different abilities and needs. Is it then really necessary to consider and plan accessibility testing as separate from usability testing? If your developers are all, or mostly, able-bodied and non-developmentally challenged, it’s usually safer.
It’s easy for such teams to forget that differently abled users have special needs when it comes to application UI/UX. They undertake performance and functional testing on the tech to take care of the technical challenges and ‘obvious’ UI/UX issues. However, there’s a whole world of differently abled users out there, who need to be supported by your team.
For that reason, it’s important to ensure that you plan for accessibility testing as part of your quality assurance processes. This gives you a clear checklist with measurable KPIs, KRAs, priorities and expected outcomes. This way, you create a plan with clear priorities that helps you create a user experience that includes and supports everyone.
Different elements require different kinds of testing and different automated testing tools.
The different accessibility requirements
So what does accessibility entail? Different kinds of users have different needs. Let’s look at a few examples
Different users have different abilities; different abilities have different application accessibility requirements; and these have different requirements when it comes to accessibility testing as well. With strong accessibility testing, each group referenced in the table above enjoys a more positive user experience, resulting in better results for the business.
With strong accessibility testing, your business can save money, improve market reach and of course do the ethically right thing. You reach a much wider audience, and gain a positive reputation. Ask our experts at Ziffity for more information on accessibility and accessibility testing.
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Director - Human Resources at Ziffity Solutions
3 个月This is an interesting article. I worked for Accessibility tech hiring in my earlier organization and found more interesting / meaningful since the purpose is really touching. More we contribute on this space will help millions of people across the globe. I truly appreciate this article.